When ‘charismania’ runs amok in Africa. Last month BBC News reported that funeral directors will sue ”self-styled prophet” for claiming to raise a man from the dead. Ps. Alph Lukau, after much outrage and ridicule, claims he “had only completed a miracle that God had already started”. As wisely pointed out on a post by Pulpit & Pen a few years ago:
“Charismatic tall tales thrive in African folklore for the same reason that palm-readers and tarot card soothsayers set up shop in the poorer parts of town. The lower the socio-economic status and lower the education of the culture or subculture, the more that population is prone to suffer under the bondage of spiritual superstition. Charismatics have set up shop wherever superstition thrives and people are the most gullible. In reality, the charismatic spell on the continent of Africa is little more than a satanic stronghold, keeping its people enslaved to the sub-Christian religion of Montanism and inoculating them against an authentic gospel.”
BBC News writes:
A group of funeral directors in South Africa say they will sue a self-styled prophet who claims to have resurrected a dead man.
A viral video of Pastor Alph Lukau shows him shouting “rise up” to a man lying down in a coffin who then jerks upright to cheers from worshippers.
The funeral companies say they were manipulated into being involved.
The spectacle, seen outside Pastor Lukau’s church near Johannesburg, has been ridiculed and condemned by many.
“There are no such things as miracles,” the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL Rights Commission) told South Africa’s national broadcaster.
“They are made up to try to get money from the hopelessness of our people.”
‘Tricked’ three companies
Three funeral companies who say they were manipulated by the “scheme” are now taking legal action for damage to their reputation.
Kingdom Blue, Kings & Queens Funeral Services and Black Phoenix told local media that church representatives tricked them in different ways.
“Alleged family members of the deceased” told the Kings & Queens Funeral Services they had had a “dispute with a different funeral service provider”.
The customers also allegedly placed “Black Phoenix stickers on their private car” to look credible to Kings & Queens Funeral Services when they went to hire a hearse from them.
National debate
The coffin, the funeral directors say, was acquired from Kingdom Blue.
Pastor Lukau’s church, Alleluia Ministries International, has not responded to the BBC’s request for comment.
The Sowetan news site reports that the church has since backtracked on its resurrection claim, saying the “dead” man was in fact “already alive” when he was brought to the premises in Kramerville.
Pastor Lukau had only “completed a miracle that God had already started”, Alleluia International Ministries is quoted by The Sowetan as saying.
The BBC’s Milton Nkosi says the video has sparked a national debate on fake pastors and had been widely condemned by established religious groups.
However some South Africans have taken to social media with the hashtag #ResurrectionChallenge to see the funny side.
Source: BBC News, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47370398?fbclid=IwAR1JE9eiwn1GiwPxQyGEa-QqhejwTTndm2p7OJP2hEnH-RXmHhBWqz0Dil0, Published Feb 26, 2019. (Accessed March 10, 2019.)
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